For I Wait for You

[Christsfreeservant]

Psalms 25:4-5, 8-10 ESV

“Make me to know your ways, O Lord;​

teach me your paths.​

Lead me in your truth and teach me,​

for you are the God of my salvation;​

for you I wait all the day long.”​

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“Good and upright is the Lord;​

therefore he instructs sinners in the way.​

He leads the humble in what is right,​

and teaches the humble his way.​

All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness,​

for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.”​

If we are the Lord’s true sheep, we should want to follow the Shepherd wherever he leads us. If we don’t want to be led by him at all, then we are not his true sheep. For Jesus said that his sheep listen to him, he knows them, and they follow (obey) him (John 10:27). And this precedes John 10:28-30 where Jesus said that he gives his true sheep eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of his hand. So, please know that verse 27 is the condition for verses 28-30 to be fulfilled.

So, if we are the Lord’s true sheep, we are listening to him, and we are following him in obedience to his commands (New Covenant). It doesn’t mean we are perfect people, but sin is no longer our master, for Jesus delivered us from our slavery (addiction) to sin. Now Jesus is our Lord and Master and we are following him in his ways and in his truth. We have died with Christ to sin, and now by the grace of God, we are living to God and to his righteousness in walks of obedience to our Lord.

Psalms 25:16-21 ESV

“Turn to me and be gracious to me,​

for I am lonely and afflicted.​

The troubles of my heart are enlarged;​

bring me out of my distresses.​

Consider my affliction and my trouble,​

and forgive all my sins.​

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“Consider how many are my foes,​

and with what violent hatred they hate me.​

Oh, guard my soul, and deliver me!​

Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.​

May integrity and uprightness preserve me,​

for I wait for you.”​

Following Jesus Christ with our lives is the best life ever, but it is a life of suffering for the sake of righteousness. It begins with us surrendering to God’s call to us to leave our lives of sin behind us to follow Jesus in obedience, which involves us humbling ourselves before God. For the faith that is required of us for salvation is not of ourselves, but is a gift from God, and that faith means to be persuaded, and we can’t even come to faith in Jesus Christ unless God the Father first draws us to Christ.

And what God persuades us of is his righteousness and holiness, and of our sinfulness, and of our need to die with him to sin and to walk in obedience to his commands. And when he has persuaded us, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and we are raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. For our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

So, now we walk (in conduct, in practice) no longer according to the flesh, but now according to the Spirit. And daily by the Spirit we are putting to death the deeds of the flesh and we are walking in the ways of the Lord. But when this happens, and we are no longer living the way we used to, we will have friends and family and even other “church people” who will reject us, who may even hate us, and who will want nothing to do with us. For they might regard us now as “too religious.”

And so a walk of genuine faith in Jesus Christ can be a lonely journey, at times, especially the closer our walk with the Lord becomes, and the more that we are sharing the truth of the gospel with others, and especially if we are also exposing the lies of Satan and if we are testing false teachers and their false doctrines against the truth of the Scriptures, in context. For, not too many people want to be a part of that, not even most people who call themselves Christians here in America. They want to “play it safe.”

And Satan is our enemy, and he wants to take us out (destroy us), and so he is going to attack us from many different angles, because he wants to bring us down. He wants us to give up, and so he will hit us hard in many different ways, using different people to hurt us, too. But he cannot do any of that but what God allows it. And if God allows it there is a good purpose for it in our lives, too, such as to humble us, and to draw us closer to the Lord, and to make us more like Jesus in character.

So, we must know and understand that the Christian life is a hard life, but it is the best life, for we are serving Almighty God with our lives and he is using us for his purposes and for his glory in other people’s lives to help them to come to know Christ and to surrender their all to Christ, too. And the Lord is our strength, so he carries the load of it all for us. We just have to yield to him and take his yoke upon us and learn from him, and then we will find rest for our weary souls.

[Matt 5:10-16; Matt 10:16-25; Matt 24:9-14; Matt 28:18-20; Lu 6:22-23; Lu 21:12-19; John 15:1-21; Jn 16:33; Acts 1:8; Acts 14:22; Acts 26:18; Rom 5:3-5; Rom 12:1-8; 1 Co 12:1-31; 2 Co 1:3-11; Eph 4:1-16; Eph 5:17-27; Phil 3:7-11; Col 3:16; 1 Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4; Heb 3:13; Heb 12:3-12; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet 2:9; 1 Pet 4:12-17]

Have Thine Own Way, Lord

Words by Adelaide A. Pollard, 1907
Music by George C. Stebbins, 1907

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Thou art the potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Search me and try me, Master, today!
Whiter than snow, Lord, wash me just now,
As in Thy presence humbly I bow.

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Wounded and weary, help me I pray!
Power, all power, surely is Thine!
Touch me and heal me, Savior divine!

Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Hold o'er my being absolute sway.
Fill with Thy Spirit till all shall see
Christ only, always, living in me!

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